On This Day / May 8, 1971
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19710508
Reference Date
19710508
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 8th May 1971, job discrimination was condemned at a NI Labour Party conference while a BBC reporter was released after refusing to identify an IRA source. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Jobs Bias Rapped | On This Day – 8th May 1971
AT the annual conference of the Northern Ireland Labour Party in Belfast, Mr Ken Young, an executive member, hit out strongly last night at firms guilty of sectarian employment in NI.
They were doing nothing to try and eliminate injustices, he told the conference.
Mr Young was making a call for an inquiry by the Minister of Community Relations, Mr David Bleakley into appointments in the private sector of industry.
He was also supporting motions urging effective anti-discrimination legislation in the fields of housing, employment and the provision of services and also asking the Minister to inquire from large firms in private industry if the question of religion was taken into consideration when either recruiting staff or making promotions.
Mr Young said that in an area where over one-third of the population were Catholic, there was something wrong when one saw that in the shipyard there were only 5 per cent Catholic workers.
He also referred to a bank and an insurance company with a staff of 150 which employed no Catholics.
It was evident that such businesses were doing nothing to try to eliminate the injustice of sectarian employment, he said.
The speaker said he believed that no Catholic seriously expected promotion above a certain grade in the NI Civil Service.
Discrimination in employment was a rampant evil which caused great discontent and hardship in the community. Many people believed that these wrongs did not exist.
Mr Erskine Holmes, vice- chairman, said there was no point in pussyfooting around with ineffectual anti-incitement to hatred legislation.
They needed a proper legal instrument to bring those in the private sector before the courts and expose them. The motions were carried.
Silent TV Reporter Released
MR Bernard Falk, BBC reporter who was jailed for four days for contempt of court for refusing to identify an IRA man whom he interviewed in a TV programme, was released from jail yesterday.
He said that jail was not as ghastly as he expected. The warders were firm but were kind to him. The food was satisfactory.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: It is easy to forget at this remove how outspoken the NILP was in support of an end to job discrimination here during the early years of the Troubles.
By 1971 there was still no specific legislation to curb discrimination and the Fair Employment Agency (1976) relied largely on a voluntary approach by employers.
Mounting pressure for stronger legislation was applied by the Irish government through the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and the campaign for the MacBride Principles In the United States.
The result was the 1989 Fair Employment Act which finally addressed the Issue.)
On This Day – 8th May 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19710508
Reference Date
19710508
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 8th May 1971, job discrimination was condemned at a NI Labour Party conference while a BBC reporter was released after refusing to identify an IRA source. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Jobs Bias Rapped | On This Day – 8th May 1971
AT the annual conference of the Northern Ireland Labour Party in Belfast, Mr Ken Young, an executive member, hit out strongly last night at firms guilty of sectarian employment in NI.
They were doing nothing to try and eliminate injustices, he told the conference.
Mr Young was making a call for an inquiry by the Minister of Community Relations, Mr David Bleakley into appointments in the private sector of industry.
He was also supporting motions urging effective anti-discrimination legislation in the fields of housing, employment and the provision of services and also asking the Minister to inquire from large firms in private industry if the question of religion was taken into consideration when either recruiting staff or making promotions.
Mr Young said that in an area where over one-third of the population were Catholic, there was something wrong when one saw that in the shipyard there were only 5 per cent Catholic workers.
He also referred to a bank and an insurance company with a staff of 150 which employed no Catholics.
It was evident that such businesses were doing nothing to try to eliminate the injustice of sectarian employment, he said.
The speaker said he believed that no Catholic seriously expected promotion above a certain grade in the NI Civil Service.
Discrimination in employment was a rampant evil which caused great discontent and hardship in the community. Many people believed that these wrongs did not exist.
Mr Erskine Holmes, vice- chairman, said there was no point in pussyfooting around with ineffectual anti-incitement to hatred legislation.
They needed a proper legal instrument to bring those in the private sector before the courts and expose them. The motions were carried.
Silent TV Reporter Released
MR Bernard Falk, BBC reporter who was jailed for four days for contempt of court for refusing to identify an IRA man whom he interviewed in a TV programme, was released from jail yesterday.
He said that jail was not as ghastly as he expected. The warders were firm but were kind to him. The food was satisfactory.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: It is easy to forget at this remove how outspoken the NILP was in support of an end to job discrimination here during the early years of the Troubles.
By 1971 there was still no specific legislation to curb discrimination and the Fair Employment Agency (1976) relied largely on a voluntary approach by employers.
Mounting pressure for stronger legislation was applied by the Irish government through the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and the campaign for the MacBride Principles In the United States.
The result was the 1989 Fair Employment Act which finally addressed the Issue.)
On This Day – 8th May 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19710508
Reference Date
May 8, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 8th May 1971, job discrimination was condemned at a NI Labour Party conference while a BBC reporter was released after refusing to identify an IRA source. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Jobs Bias Rapped | On This Day – 8th May 1971
AT the annual conference of the Northern Ireland Labour Party in Belfast, Mr Ken Young, an executive member, hit out strongly last night at firms guilty of sectarian employment in NI.
They were doing nothing to try and eliminate injustices, he told the conference.
Mr Young was making a call for an inquiry by the Minister of Community Relations, Mr David Bleakley into appointments in the private sector of industry.
He was also supporting motions urging effective anti-discrimination legislation in the fields of housing, employment and the provision of services and also asking the Minister to inquire from large firms in private industry if the question of religion was taken into consideration when either recruiting staff or making promotions.
Mr Young said that in an area where over one-third of the population were Catholic, there was something wrong when one saw that in the shipyard there were only 5 per cent Catholic workers.
He also referred to a bank and an insurance company with a staff of 150 which employed no Catholics.
It was evident that such businesses were doing nothing to try to eliminate the injustice of sectarian employment, he said.
The speaker said he believed that no Catholic seriously expected promotion above a certain grade in the NI Civil Service.
Discrimination in employment was a rampant evil which caused great discontent and hardship in the community. Many people believed that these wrongs did not exist.
Mr Erskine Holmes, vice- chairman, said there was no point in pussyfooting around with ineffectual anti-incitement to hatred legislation.
They needed a proper legal instrument to bring those in the private sector before the courts and expose them. The motions were carried.
Silent TV Reporter Released
MR Bernard Falk, BBC reporter who was jailed for four days for contempt of court for refusing to identify an IRA man whom he interviewed in a TV programme, was released from jail yesterday.
He said that jail was not as ghastly as he expected. The warders were firm but were kind to him. The food was satisfactory.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: It is easy to forget at this remove how outspoken the NILP was in support of an end to job discrimination here during the early years of the Troubles.
By 1971 there was still no specific legislation to curb discrimination and the Fair Employment Agency (1976) relied largely on a voluntary approach by employers.
Mounting pressure for stronger legislation was applied by the Irish government through the Anglo-Irish Intergovernmental Conference and the campaign for the MacBride Principles In the United States.
The result was the 1989 Fair Employment Act which finally addressed the Issue.)
On This Day – 8th May 1971
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.